Computer-aided detection (CAD) generally refers to the use of computers to analyze medical images to detect anatomical abnormalities therein. Sometimes used interchangeably with the term computer-aided detection are the terms computer-aided diagnosis, computer-assisted diagnosis, or computer-assisted detection. The outputs of CAD systems are sets of information sufficient to communicate the locations of anatomical abnormalities, or lesions, in a medical image, and can also include other information such as the type of lesion, degree of suspiciousness, and the like. CAD results are most often communicated in the form of graphical annotations, generally referred to herein as CAD markers, overlaid upon a diagnostic-quality and/or reduced-resolution version of the medical image. CAD results are mainly used by radiologists as “secondary reads” or secondary diagnosis tools. As used herein, radiologist generically refers to a medical professional that analyzes medical images and makes clinical determinations therefrom, it being understood that such person might be titled differently, or might have differing qualifications, depending on the country or locality of their particular medical environment. When analyzing a medical image, the radiologist usually makes his or her own analytical determinations before looking at the CAD results, which either verify those determinations or trigger further inspection of the image. Some CAD implementations have used CAD results in a “concurrent reading” context in which the radiologists look at the CAD results at the same time that they look at the images.
In the field of x-ray mammography, thousands of mammography CAD systems are now installed worldwide, and are used to assist radiologists in the interpretation of millions of mammograms per year. Mammography CAD systems are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,620, U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,591, U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,929, and U.S. 2001/0043729A1, each of which is incorporated by reference herein. Mammography CAD algorithms analyze digital or digitized images of standard mammographic views (e.g. CC, MLO) for characteristics commonly associated with breast cancer, such as calcifications, masses, and architectural distortions. It is to be appreciated that although presented in the particular context of x-ray mammography, the preferred embodiments described herein are applicable for a variety of medical imaging modalities such as computerized tomography (CT) imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and ultrasound, and even less conventional medical imaging modalities such as thermography, electrical conductivity-based modalities, and the like.
In the context of medical image review workstations, including mammography CAD review workstations, key issues arise in the particular selection of information presented to the radiologist and the manner in which that information is presented. These issues are especially important in today's radiology environment, in which there is a ongoing tension between (i) providing high-quality detection/diagnosis for each patient, and (ii) maintaining adequate patient throughput to keep costs under control.
Substantial effort and attention has been directed to increasing the analysis capabilities of CAD systems and offering ever-increasing amounts of information for the radiologist to review at the workstation. By way of example, U.S. 2001/0043729A1, supra, discusses a search workstation in which the display shows both a computer classification output for a lesion as well as images of lesions from other medical images with known diagnoses based on a similarity of computer-extracted features. One or more shortcomings remain, however, in relation to the selection of relevant information that would be helpful to the radiologist in terms of quality and reliability of review. Further shortcomings remain relating to strategic integration of that helpful information into the existing radiology workflows.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a medical review workstation that provides a judicious selection of helpful information to the radiologist for assisting in the screening and/or diagnosis of a medical image.
It would be further desirable to provide a user interface facilitating access to, and display of, that helpful information in an easily usable and time efficient manner.